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Corporate Social License

A Study in Legitimacy, Conformance, and Corruption

verfasst von: Petter Gottschalk, Christopher Hamerton

Verlag: Springer Nature Switzerland

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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Über dieses Buch

This book makes a distinctive and innovative contribution to the study of white-collar and corporate crime through detailed examination of the use, affect, and violation of the corporate social license – a concept frequently extended to a license to operate. Whilst discrete aspects of corporate social responsibility have found their way into the discourse on business deviance and crime, no single book to date has provided a detailed exploration of social licence through a criminological lens. Here, using an interdisciplinary focus which includes illustrative case-studies and large-scale original fieldwork, Gottschalk and Hamerton explore European, North American, Asian, and global perspectives to identify, position, and reveal the impact of the social license on contemporary conceptions of white-collar and corporate deviance and crime. Corporate Social License: A Study in Legitimacy, Conformance, and Corruption will be of interest to scholars of criminology, law, business management, and sociology along with professionals within allied fields.

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Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction

Abstract

This chapter establishes the aims, rationale, and scope of the book, providing a detailed introduction to the use, affect, and violation of the corporate social license, a term frequently extended to the social license to operate. The social license—a public perception that can be earned, lost, and regained—fits within the wider remit of corporate social responsibility as a form of private business self-regulation through normative pressure. Examples are provided to link social license to established models of business legitimacy, ethical practice, and conformance, and conversely episodes of business illegitimacy, malpractice, and corruption.

Petter Gottschalk, Christopher Hamerton

Chapter 2. Violations of the Social License

Abstract

This chapter expands scholarly definitions regarding the concept of corporate social license to operate before moving into the danger of violating the license. Violations are exemplified by cases derived from corporate investigation reports. To define the concept and highlight the scholarly potential of the theme of social license violation, a number of focused illustrative case studies are introduced. These include examinations of a clothing retailer which withdrew from longstanding production of its garments in Myanmar following socio-political pressure, a large-scale social housing developer subjected to public scrutiny, and a fisheries conglomerate that was revealed to have obtained fishing rights through bribery.

Petter Gottschalk, Christopher Hamerton

Chapter 3. Institutional Theory Perspectives

Abstract

This chapter examines institutional theory, with the concept utilized to explain how businesses respond to pressure and crisis. Institutional theory assumes that the social context has an important impact on human behavior, while at the same time downplaying the role of strategic responses often found in the management literature. Institutional theory also emphasizes conformance that refers to meeting and potentially exceeding societal and other informal norms and obligations. The chapter develops to evaluate traditional strategic responses to pressure and the characteristics and parameters of people institutions, before considering institutional deterioration causing decay and institutional plasticity enabling change.

Petter Gottschalk, Christopher Hamerton

Chapter 4. Stakeholder Theory Perspectives

Abstract

This chapter foregrounds stakeholder theory, with various perspectives considered to explain how businesses mobilize and respond to various interest groups. In this sense the social license is the set of demands and expectations held by local stakeholders and broader society about how a business should operate. Coverage includes the process of gaining and maintaining a social license and the involvement of business stakeholders, before exploring specific stakeholder influences, such as the impact of community religion, workplace management immorality, the magnitude of offender recidivism, the effect of white-collar support groups, and the pursuit of former Chief Executives.

Petter Gottschalk, Christopher Hamerton

Chapter 5. Legitimacy and the Corporate Social License

Abstract

This chapter discusses the key strategic issues underpinning the social license to operate. Important issues include the relevance of various sources of license authority, relevant substance of the social license, and the value of gaining the social license. The perspectives of social license contract and moral legitimacy are covered in this chapter alongside close analysis of corporate business trustworthiness, social license contract perspectives, moral legitimacy, and the intrinsic critical value of obtaining social license. The chapter concludes with an illustrative case study on controversial coal seam gas exploration in New South Wales, Australia.

Petter Gottschalk, Christopher Hamerton

Chapter 6. Corporate Response to Normative Social Pressure

Abstract

This chapter explores corporate responses to normative social pressures. Normative pressures refer to socially derived expectations where a plurality of institutional demands tend to be combined. Here a distinction is made between willingness and ability of organizations to respond to normative pressures. The willingness derives from issue salience that refers to the extent to which a stakeholder issue resonates with and is prioritized by management. Coverage includes an examination of normative corporate corruption pressures, including responses to auditors, and perceived socio-economic conflict toward an attempted remaking of capitalism towards social acceptance.

Petter Gottschalk, Christopher Hamerton

Chapter 7. The Convenience Theory Approach

Abstract

This chapter explains the theory of convenience in terms of its application and relevance to consideration of the corporate social license. The significance of convenience theory in this instance lies within the avoidance of misconduct and crime to gain and keep the social license Thus, coverage addresses the challenge of directing executives to align their work with laws, rules, and ethics in terms of evaluation of executive status convenience, resource access convenience, and corporate deterioration convenience. Moreover, various bottom-up approaches are explored based on the theory of convenience in terms of outside-in-normative pressure. It is argued that these bottom-up approaches to executive compliance and conformance focus on organizational measures to make white-collar crime less convenient for potential offenders.

Petter Gottschalk, Christopher Hamerton

Chapter 8. Considerations on Corporate Social Responsibility

Abstract

This chapter considers some of the wider implications of corporate social responsibility. Traditionally the perspective of corporate social responsibility has dominated executive attention to stakeholders and subsequent corporate interpretation of normative social pressures. Indeed, displaying a clear commitment to corporate social responsibility can be one way of achieving or strengthening the social license to operate, with many companies positioning the social license to operate as part of their corporate social responsibility strategy. However, as the practice has established itself as an anticipated custom, corporate social responsibility has tended toward performance and the exhibition of symbolic rather than substantive actions.

Petter Gottschalk, Christopher Hamerton

Chapter 9. Challenging the Social License

Abstract

This chapter presents an analysis of six illustrative case studies where the social license to operate has been challenged. The cases are from different parts of the world and offer both international and comparative global perspectives within this developing subject area. Community pressure is explored in terms of the rooibos industry in South Africa, following the application of normative social pressure in the Khoi and San communities. When the term social license to operate was coined, it was especially concerned with environmental harm and social risk from physical industrial activities, here three environmental examples are examined, the seam gas industry in Australia, copper mining operations in Peru, and gas exploration and licensing in the Netherlands. The two final case studies cover corruption in the technology industry in Germany, and the perceived social harm attached to European (Danish) garment operations following political upheaval in Southeast Asia.

Petter Gottschalk, Christopher Hamerton

Chapter 10. Social License and the Impact of Corporate Change

Abstract

This chapter presents an impactful case study in close detail to illustrate the effect of corporate change on perceived normative social values, focusing on a construction company that operated under the mission statement of building ordinary homes for ordinary people in Norway as a social cooperative. In summary, following restructuring and movement into the luxury housing market at the beginning of the 2020s, the company expressed a desire to deviate from the established business model of the cooperative company, causing a powerful bottom-up reaction in terms of a member revolt that threatened the social license to operate and consequently the viability of the company.

Petter Gottschalk, Christopher Hamerton

Chapter 11. Compliance-Conformity-Convenience

Abstract

This chapter reviews and analyzes the various perspectives on corporate conformity, compliance, and convenience. Corporate compliance and conformity are both matters of issue salience and profitability in terms of benefits exceeding cost. Such issues are explicitly linked to perceived social norms, public expectation of how companies “should” or might operate in terms of business practice, an expectation frequently interpreted by corporations as normative pressure. Here, normative pressures are interpreted as socially derived expectations, a multiplicity of different expectations from a plurality of institutional and ethical demands. The chapter develops to cover, inter alia, remaking capitalism for social acceptance, responses to normative pressures, legalistic and formalistic approaches, and organizational deviance and failure in terms of risk and fraud.

Petter Gottschalk, Christopher Hamerton

Chapter 12. Gendered Perspectives on Social License and Corporate Crime

Abstract

This chapter is founded on empirical evidence of stable female involvement in white-collar crime independent of the extent of gender inequality in India, Norway, Portugal, Iran, and the United States, with relative convenience emerging as a potential explanation of the stability. Coverage attempts to move beyond the traditional perspectives of emancipation versus focal concern, which argue that less inequality will increase women involvement in white-collar crime versus women socializing into accepting responsibilities for social concerns by caring for others. Examining the notion of gendered corporate social license the chapter considers convenience theory propositions which include gender motive variability, gender willingness variability, and associated perceptions of the glass ceiling and the glass cliff and the impact of such concepts on the study of corporate crime.

Petter Gottschalk, Christopher Hamerton

Chapter 13. Making Sense of Deviance: Comparative Perspectives

Abstract

This chapter explores empirically how deviance in the form of white-collar crime can be understood as an affront, or assault, on the social license. Founded on original comparative fieldwork into executive decision-making conducted in India, Norway, Iran, and the United States, the empirical study presented links respondents’ self-reported extent of understanding of the white-collar crime phenomenon to propositions in convenience theory. While it is beyond the scope of this book to conclusively extrapolate clear points of convergence and divergence between these nations, content provides a persuasive pathway for future research to discuss potential explanations for social license in terms of culture, development, and equality.

Petter Gottschalk, Christopher Hamerton

Chapter 14. Conclusion

Abstract

This chapter provides a reflective conclusion in terms of the coverage, scope, and limitations, along with a summary table of the key case studies used throughout the book. It is argued that current perception of the social license refers primarily to conformance with the expectations, ethical and social standards that apply within globalized society. It is further suggested in conclusion that responding to such expectations is currently providing a significant cultural challenge toward the reordering of acceptable and universal business practices and ethical standards.

Petter Gottschalk, Christopher Hamerton

Backmatter

Titel: Corporate Social License
verfasst von: Petter Gottschalk
Christopher Hamerton
Copyright-Jahr: 2024
Verlag: Springer Nature Switzerland
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-031-45079-2
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-45078-5
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45079-2

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